What's on your nails right now? I'm sporting one of my favorite shades from the China Glaze Retro Diva collection, Let's Groove. It's described and a rich eggplant shimmer, but that's sort of an understatement. For fans of Zoya Yasmeen and OPI Who Are You Wearing, this will hit the spot. It's the perfect compromise between the two purple-with-red/orange-shimmer stunners, neither too light nor too dark. The application is superb; one coat will nearly do ya, but two gives the best coverage and a lush look, and the shimmer is to-die-for. Sadly, though it's barely been on a day (can you believe how shiny it still is?) I have to remove it because my Up & Aways just arrived, and I'll be playing with those. Pics soon!
Clickety click, nailies, more photos after the jump
Claires Chunky Blue - about $5-6 at Claires stores
This polish has a medium neutral blue base with blue shimmer/microglitter and silver hex glitter. I used four coats with a tap of the brush here or there to darken a light patch or to reposition a hex glitter piece. I added two coats of Orly Glosser and a coat of Seche Vite over everything for a glass-like finish.
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I thought perhaps Mad as a Hatter might be my favorite of the AiW polishes, but this has changed my mind. Absolutely Alice, from OPI's new Alice in Wonderland tie-in collection, is a clear base with blue and gold microglitter. The blue is the dominant color here with glistening shots of almost-3D-looking gold specks. This is four coats of Alice, topped with two coats of Orly Glosser and one coat of Seche Vite. Because the shade is almost completely comprised of glitter, this polish dries fast and creates a super-hard coating for the nails that really hangs on and does not chip. I found that the coats of Orly Glosser dried fast, and helped keep the Seche Vite from completely sinking in between the glitter and helped the polish to appear more glossy, even hours later. This beautiful midtoned sparkling sweet blue is going to be a big Spring favorite for me, and will surely get some wear when my beloved blue-and-gold Mountaineers begin the next football season in Fall. I highly recommend this polish for blue fans, glitter fans, OPI fans and collectors.
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OPI Mad as a Hatter, a lovely glitter polish from the new Alice In Wonderland collection, is full of glitter of every shade. At arms-length, this polish appears as a blingy gunmetal, but up-close you can see the amazing array of shades in the clear base. This is four coats over China Glaze Strong Adhesion base coat, plus a coat of Seche Vite.
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China Glaze Atlantis, from the newest specialty collection of 50 new polishes, is a gorgeous and unique polish. Like many of the glitters from this collection, this polish is almost more like jewelry than nail polish. This particular shade is a sheer aqua tint at one coat, chock full of silver-based holographic glitter. I used 5 coats, and to see the full glory of this shade you really need a few coats. Believe me, it's worth the fuss. The depth of this shade is beyond gorgeous and it's glorious to behold. You will need two coats of a thick topcoat to combat the inevitable grittiness of the finish, but the dry-time is super-quick, even without a topcoat.
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Color Club Ultra Violet over Power Play. The base color of Ultra Violet is similar to Power Play so it just adds a bit of shimmer and a blue flash
NOTE: please forgive the copious amounts of cuticle oil! China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise is an amazing neon, that in the midst of the matte craze could qualify as a "satin." With it's glowy shimmer and a bit of top coat, this beauty has got a very interesting finish. The color itself stands out from an ocean of other aquas by having very little blue involved, making it more of a turquoise. The shade is quite similar to China Glaze's Passion in the Pacific, however the finish of TuT sets it apart.
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Color Club Power Play is among my top 5 nail polishes of all time. It's a marriage eye-scorching neon plum/magenta awesomeness. As most neons do, this dries matte, but truly comes alive with a top coat. In normal indoor artificial light this passes as an almost vampy plum, but in the sun, it will sear your retinas in a wonderful way. The application of this polish is fantastic in two coats, as it's incredibly saturated with pigment. As with most Color Clubs I've tried, this wears like iron.
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Available for $14 at sephora.com
I took the plunge with my first product from the Illamasqua line! This nail varnish is incredibly smooth and pigmented and the color is completely unique and utterly to-die-for. I honestly think it's my very favorite nail polish out of hundreds I own. The application is reminiscent of the cream Rescue Beauty Lounge polishes in that it is butter-smooth and pigmented enough to get away with one coat. The shade is a true midtone teal, and I have nothing like it. You could compare it to RBL Teal but it's significantly lighter, though of the same tone. It's also similar to China Glaze Aqua Baby / Shower Together but AB and ST are a tiny bit more blue and slightly lighter. The depth is similar to Orly Calypso Blue but Muse is much more green.
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